System and method of assessing and rating vendor risk and pricing of technology delivery insurance

ABSTRACT

A method and system for providing a standardization and commoditizing the process of technology contracts and creating method for assessing, scoring, ranking and rating technology vendors for the purpose of comparing vendor bids on a project and for structuring and pricing insurance/surety contracts. Intrinsic and two-way vendor ratings are established for each of the vendors in a particular project. This two-way rating is used to provide a risk adjustment to the nominal bid of each of the vendors. The two-way rating is also utilized to structure and calculate an insurance premium based upon the probability that the vendor would fail/default on the delivery of a technology project.

CROSS-REFERENCE APPLICATIONS

[0001] The present invention claims the benefit of U.S. provisionalpatent applications 60/227,513, filed on Aug. 24, 2000, and 60/290,069,filed May 11, 2001 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/930,140,filed Aug. 16, 2001.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus forthe commoditization of service contracts allowing various vendors to beranked based upon their intrinsic strength (intrinsic rating) and ontheir ability to deliver on a specific project (Two-Way Rating) . Thepresent invention is also directed to a method and system for pricingtechnology delivery insurance based upon the failure/default by avendor. This assessment and ranking will allow insurance companies tostructure and underwrite insurance/surety contacts, by allowinginsurance companies to assess the comparative risk inherent in specificvendors hence giving the insurance company/guarantor the ability toprice risk based premiums or fees and the ability to underwrite andmonitor vendor performance.

BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

[0003] Historically, if a particular customer wished to have a vendor toprovide a particular product for the customer, such as erecting aparticular structure, the customer would publicize this fact to theappropriate industry along with various parameters required for thevendors to prepare a proposal for erecting the structure. The customerwould then review the proposals received from the vendors for thepurpose of choosing the particular vendor to which a contract is awardedfor erecting the structure. Generally the choice of the vendor will bebased upon the total cost of the project, the time it would take tocomplete the project, as well as various other factors, such as thereliability of the particular vendor. As can be appreciated, at leastpartly basing the awarding of a large contract on the perceivedreliability and trustworthiness of the vendor could result in anon-timely completion of the project as well as the project beingdelivered over the agreed upon cost if the perceived reputation of thevendor was unwarranted.

[0004] Additionally, along with the subjective nature of the decision toreward a contract, the contract process itself was rather timeconsuming. Once a customer decided to embark upon a particular project,various vendors must be alerted to the existence of such a project whichtypically occurred by the customer mailing the request for proposals(RFPs) to various potential vendors or publishing the request forproposals in industry publications. As can be appreciated, recentadvances in technology have resulted in lessening the communication timebetween a customer and a potential vendor by the utilization of theInternet. Although the current invention does not depend on the Internetfor its success.

[0005] Additionally, an auction concept has permeated corporate thinkingto the degree that most sectors are now attempting to turn their buyingor selling decisions into a bidding exercise where buyers and sellerseither are aggregated into a virtually monopsony (single buyer) ormonopoly (single seller). Although the reverse auction concept wouldwork well for generic products and commodities, it is yet to be appliedto the burgeoning technology industry which includes softwaredevelopment contracts.

[0006] To consider a reverse auction in any field, it is necessary tocommoditize the service contracts and apply objective standards toanalyze the pool of bidders. Once standards have been applied toneutralize the impact of extraneous variables, the normal interplay ofsupply and demand will yield price discovery. However, while it isrelatively easy to make a well known substance such as wheat or corninto a commodity, the commoditization of a less quantifiable conceptsuch as technology services becomes problematic. The present inventiondescribes a formula and business model that makes this possible.Generally, once the various proposals are received by the customer fromthe vendors, the contract is awarded to the vendor whose total cost isthe lowest or who can provide the product most quickly, or both. Whileon the surface, it would appear that it would be obvious to award thecontract based upon the cost or time of delivery. However, thisyardstick would not take into account the performance of the vendor.Rather, it is important to determine whether the vendor can perform thecontract in the time period required or for the agreed upon cost.Therefore, it is important to be able to rank the reliability of thevendors and factor this reliability into the time of performance and thecost of the project to better compare the vendors. This will provide tothe client both a nominal bid and a risk-adjusted bid (which includesthe component of performance strength and delivery within it). Abilityto rate performance itself is derived from the analysis of vendorcapabilities using the intrinsic and the two-way rating process at theheart of this invention. Furthermore, with respect to rather complexcontracts a better comparison can be made if the contracts arepartitioned into various independent modules/phases for the purpose ofcomparing the bids, abilities and the risk inherent in specific vendors.The understanding of the risk inherent in various components of thecontract will allow the insurance company/guarantor to underwritetechnology risk, which is the ability of the vendor to deliver on thetechnology that he is contracted to deliver.

[0007] Various prior art patents address several aspects of the priorart. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,678, issued to Shannon, describesa process simulation technique using benefit-trade matrices to estimateschedule, costs and risks. As illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, a processsimulation tool is utilized employing benefit-trade matrices 21a-21f andvarious steps during a design process. The benefit-trade matrixcomprises a multiple variable look up table embodying history datarelating to a particular step indicative of weights of schedule, costand risk elements as well as user-input rating data. As described incolumn 7, lines 5-20, if a risk metric is scored high, the user maydecide to forego simulation and take the risk that a mistake was notmade, or make the appropriate trade off if a mistake was made. However,while it is clear that the patent to Shannon does take into accountrisk, the purpose of this accountability is to determine whether asimulation is cost effective. There is no suggestion that this risk beapplied to various vendors. Indeed, it would appear that this patent isdirected to a technique in which a schedule is determined by a singlevendor used to calculate resources required to complete a particularproject. There is no implication of an insurance structure within this.

[0008] U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,646, issued to Grosh et al shows a system andmethod for facilitating the valuation and purchase of information. Thispatent acknowledges that at present, few techniques exist for thedetermination of what to charge for any particular data. As indicated incolumn 2, lines 1-10, the patent to Grosh et al is directed tofacilitating the upcoming commoditization of information. Therefore,while the patent to Grosh et al does recognize an impending trend in theindustry, it does not address the manner in which this trend is to beutilized to obtain data relating to various contracts to be awarded.

[0009] U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,890, issued to Case et al, illustrates asystem and method for analyzing procurement decisions and customersatisfaction. Although this patent acknowledges that the vendor'squalifications are important in making procurement decisions, it doesnot provide a clear indication of relatively ranking these vendors basedupon the time of performance and cost of a particular project as well aspartitioning the product when making this determination (or ofstructuring an insurance contract from this).

[0010] U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,138, issued to Aycock et al, relates to anapparatus and method for providing interactive evaluation of potentialvendors. Vendor requirements are selected for vendor qualification andthese vendor requirements can be assigned a relative weight on the basisof project objectives. A selected group of requirements defining qualitycontrol standards are supplied in an RFP/RFQ as objective criteria to bemet with a desired vendor in a project. Upon receiving the responses,each response is provided with a scaled score. By correlating the scaledscore with the relative weight of each of the requirements with respectto the project objectives, the patent to Aycock et al enables anobjective evaluation of the supply responses in order to determine asupplier maturity level. It is important to note that the analysisdescribed in Aycock et al is based primarily upon responses received bythe particular vendors. Additionally, this patent does not describe asystem in which the contracts are partitioned to better compare thevendors during the selection process, allowing an insurancecompany/guarantor to underwrite the technology risk. Also, this patentdoes not address the vendors ability to deliver on a “specificcontract”.

[0011] None of the patents described hereinabove anticipates or suggestsa method or system in which vendors are rated on their generalized pastperformance as well as specific past performers relating to the type oftechnology forming the subject of the contract bid. This rating systemwould be normalized in a manner in which all of the vendors bidding onthe contract constitute the entire universe of bids for that contract.This rating system would be used to provide a good measure to comparenominal bids of the contract by providing the risk-adjusted bid of thevendor in addition to the nominal bid. The rating system would be usedto determine an insurance premium insuring the customer against defaultfor non-timely performance of the contract.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0012] The deficiencies of the prior art are addressed by the presentinvention which is directed to a method and system for partitioningcontracts into various independent modules/phases, allowing thecomplexity of each module/phase to be determined as well as utilizingthese individual modules/phases in the assessment of a particularvendor's capability of delivering the entire contract in a timely manneras well as determining the ultimate cost of the project. This creates astructure allowing the insurance company/guarantor for the first time tounderwrite risk inherent technology contracts and price a risk-neutralpremium associated with this risk, that is, the relative ranking ofvendors based upon their ability to deliver and the relative riskinherent in a particular vendor. The distinguishing aspect indetermining value, as opposed to price, is to objectively quantify therelative risks associated with using individual vendors. This is becausesecond-tier vendors will be usually less expensive than first-tiervendors, but the risk is greater. Choosing the lowest bidder could turnout to be a mistake. Therefore, the risk-adjustment applied to thenominal bid submitted by a vendor is the key to accurately assessing therisk in a particular vendor. The system and method according to thepresent invention can restore parity between bids and compare them on auniform scale familiar to commodities markets.

[0013] A score or ranking is developed for each of the vendors basedupon the vendor's historical reliability as well as normalizing thevendor's ranking with respect to the other vendors for the purpose ofdetermining the appropriate vendor. This is known as the intrinsicrating. A two-way or extrinsic rating is assigned to each project-vendorcombination as well as establishing a subsidiary risk measure. Thetwo-way rating bases the assessment of the technology vendor or theability to execute and deliver on a particular project. While theintrinsic rating of a particular vendor might be high, the two-wayrating may be low if the vendor does not have the relevant expenditurethat a particular project requires. The two-way rating is a numericalranking that addresses both the vendor to which it is assigned and aparticular project under consideration. One vendor may have a relativelyhigh two-way rating for one project, and a relatively low two-way ratingfor another. The intrinsic or standalone ranking is developed reactingto the vendors track record in the industry. Both these tools the 1)intrinsic rating and 2) the two-way ratings are used for the process ofvendor selection. The intrinsic rating is a numerical ranking assignedto a vendor depending solely on the vendor's a-priori characteristicsregardless of the project under consideration. Therefore, any vendoronly has one intrinsic or standalone rating and one two-way rating for aparticular project which is the vendor's ability to deliver on aspecific project. The intrinsic and extrinsic rankings allow thecustomer to select the best vendor suited to the particular project. Theratings for both the intrinsic and the extrinsic two-way ratings arebetween 0 and 1 with 1 being the highest score attainable.

[0014] Furthermore, the intrinsic ranking can be modified by thecustomer to produce a modified intrinsic rating. The modified intrinsicrating is the rating of the vendor (as modified by the customer) basedon on-going vendor performance.

[0015] Furthermore, the nominal bid submitted to a customer by a vendoris adjusted using the vendors's two-way rating providing a riskadjustment factor which incorporates both the time to delivery of thevendor and the cost per day for the vendor into its parameters to adjustthe nominal bid. For a very weak vendor the risk-adjustment could besignificantly high and for a strong vendor the risk-adjustment would bemarginal or low.

[0016] Once a particular vendor is chosen utilizing the criteria of thepresent invention, the probability that the vendor would default on theperformance of the contract as well as the premium for obtaininginsurance for the performance of the contract can be established.

[0017] The present invention therefore is also directed to a system andmethod of obtaining operational risk insurance in the context ofoutsourcing technology development or technology contracts. A suitablestructure is established whereby the interest of the insurance company,the customer and the primary vendor are simultaneously preserved. Thisvendor can be located in the United States or any country of the world.

[0018] Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to develop asystem and method of partitioning a contract, such as atechnology/software contract into independent modules/phases.

[0019] It is yet another object of the present invention to provide asystem and method to develop a scoring/rating for each of the vendors.

[0020] It is still yet another object of the present invention todevelop a matrix for comparing vendors bidding on a single contract. Thematrix comprises the partitioning of the technology contract, the vendorintrinsic rating, the vendor two-way rating, the risk-adjusted bid andthe insurance/guarantee premium attributable to a particular vendor riskand delivery (“the CTO matrix”).

[0021] It is still another object of the present invention to develop asystem for providing risk adjustments to the bids of each of thevendors.

[0022] It is still another object of the present invention to develop analgorithm for determining the price of a premium for insurance/guaranteecoverage for the performance of the vendor.

[0023] Other objects and characteristics of the present invention willbe made apparent from the description below and the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024]FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating the generalized method ofthe present invention;

[0025]FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the calculation of thevendor's intrinsic rating;

[0026]FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating the calculation of thevendor's modified intrinsic rating;

[0027]FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating the calculation of thevendor's two-way rating;

[0028]FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating the calculation whichadjusts the vendor's nominal bid for a project into a risk-adjusted bid;

[0029]FIG. 6 is a flow diagram that shows the overview of theinsurance/guarantee algorithm; and

[0030]FIG. 7 shows the methodology to calculate the risk premiums forthe technology insurance/guarantee contract.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

[0031]FIG. 1 illustrates the broad concepts of the present invention 10in which a technology or similar IT contract is disaggregated for theprocess of efficient vendor selection and to establish better standardsin the technology market. The commodity concept is largelymisunderstood. Although most people can name commodities without muchtrouble, it is an artificial construct. There are no naturally occurringcommodities. Even the most common substance, water, is far from uniformin properties of behavior across regions of countries. Every commodityis an artifact assigned to facilitate trading between disconnectedparties. Commoditizing removes physical properties and othercontrollable variables from pricing discussions through standardization.For example, removing credit risk from a mortgage-backed security allowsits price to be dictated solely by interest rate considerations. Bydoing so, liquidity, tradeability and ultimate market potential are allincreased. Anything can be made into a commodity through appropriatestandardization. The problem that must be solved with respect totechnology contracts is to standardize, or equalize, the properties ofthe contract or project.

[0032] The present invention approaches the problem of commoditizationof technology contracts in terms of assessment of risk. The presentinvention therefore develops a system and method for valuing technologycontracts hence allowing vendors to put in bids which are efficient andrelevant.

[0033] Once a customer determines that he wishes a contract to be bidupon, the present invention would utilize a reverse-auction pricingmodel based on replacing the lowest cost selection method normally usedin selection of the vendor with a more meaningful lowest risk-adjustedcost concept. Once these adjustments are determined, they are made tothe nominal bids provided by the vendor.

[0034] Once a request for proposal (RFP) is generated at 12, thecustomer would post the RFP in a secure area within a computer platform.Rather than going straight to the vendors, the RFP is further processedutilizing the expertise of the present invention. Alternatively, thecustomers are free to bypass this step and send the RFPs to theirpreferred vendors.

[0035] Once the RFP is generated, the RFP would be partitioned at step14, regardless of size or complexity, into a series of non-overlappingwork modules or a series of phases. A work module or a phase is definedas the portion of a technology contract that does not overlap withanother portion. The computer platform would recognize the partitionedRFP. The disaggregation of the RFPs into independent modules or phasesas inputs to the reverse auction bidding platform is one component ofthe present invention. Each of the vendors would be then asked to bidaccording to the schedule of modules or phases to estimate the costs oflarge technology contracts 16. The original bids that the vendors submitis known as the nominal bids. These nominal bids would be added to thecomputer platform in any known manner such as scanning them in or bysending the bids to the computer platform via the internet. These bidsare shown for the different modules or phases in the top portion ofTable I, as shown below. After the vendor is selected at step 18utilizing various techniques at step 20 including the use of a 1)scoring algorithm (both the nominal and the two-way ratings), the use ofa 2) CTO matrix and the use of 3) risk adjustments to nominal bids, thecontract would be awarded at step 22. Based upon an algorithm to pricethe premium for insurance coverage 26, insurance coverage would beobtained at step 24. The computer platform would be provided with theappropriate software to make the proper calculations to determine thevarious nominal and two-way ratings. The computer platform would alsohave the capability to compare the nominal and two-way ratings of eachof the vendors. TABLE I (CTO MATRIX) Client Client X Vendor 1 Vendor 2Vendor 3 Vendor 4 Start Date Dec. 1, 2000 Dec. 1, 2000 Dec. 1, 2000 Dec.1, 2000 Project Name End Date Jun. 30, 2001 Jan. 1, 2002 Apr. 30, 2001Jun. 30, 2001 Execution (days) 209 720 149 209 Intrinsic Rating 0.800.75 0.60 0.20 Two-Way Rating 0.43 0.24 0.33 0.01 Requirements $70,000$169,000 $50,280 $22,000 Design $87,000 $211,500 $62,850 $27,500Build/Unit Test $52,500 $126,800 $37,710 $16,500 Integration Testing$17,500 $42,250 $12,570 $5,500 System Testing $70,000 $169,000 $50,280$22,000 Installation $35,000 $84,500 $25,140 $11,000 Support $17,500$42,250 $12,570 $5,500 Nominal Bid $349,500 $845,000 $251,400 $110,000Risk-Adjusted Bid $689,578 $845,000 $726,227 $1,193,713Insurance/Guarantee Premium $269,787 $0 $747,820 $668,125

[0036]FIG. 2 illustrates a flow diagram for adjusting the nominal bidssubmitted by each of the vendors for the risk inherent in selecting eachof the vendors. As previously indicated with respect to FIG. 1, an RFPis generated and partitioned into the independent modules or phases. Thedisaggregating of the contract into its constituent parts allows vendorsto bid on components of the RFP. As indicated in FIG. 1, thedisaggregation of the contract into component sections as well as theuse of other algorithms would be utilized in the vendor selectionprocess at step 18. These selection criteria shown at step 20 wouldinclude the use of a scoring algorithm, the use of a CTO matrix as wellas the use of risk adjustment to nominal bids. These algorithms would beprovided on the computer platform.

[0037] The vendor will be rated in several manners including anintrinsic standalone rating of the vendor, as well as a two-wayextrinsic rating of the vendor and finally a modified intrinsic ratingof the vendor which is based on feedback from the customer and on-goingperformance of a vendor. These ratings would be calculated on thecomputer platform. The intrinsic rating and the modified intrinsicrating are used to rate the vendors's history based upon the vendor'sanswers to a number of inquiries as well as the customer's experienceutilizing the vendor. The two-way rating is determined relative to theproject under proposal and is relative to the other vendors bidding onthat particular proposal. Both the intrinsic and extrinsic ratings ofeach vendor is shown in Table I. The manner in which these ratings aredetermined will be described hereinbelow.

[0038] The intrinsic and modified intrinsic ratings would generally beused by the client to narrow the number of vendors to which a particularbid would be submitted. It will generally not be used to rate the vendoron its ability to perform on a particular contract. Various calculationsused to rate each of the vendors would be done on the computer platform.

[0039] The manner in which the intrinsic score is determined isillustrated in FIG. 2. Each of the vendors is provided with a series ofquestions included in several categories at step 28. For the purpose ofthe algorithm described in the present invention, these categoriesinclude general and corporate information; market segmentation; clientbase; software development proficiency; operational procedures and workforce augmentation. However, it should be noted that based upon the typeof vendors involved in the bidding process as well as the project to bebid, these categories can be altered. Within each of these categoriesare several other detailed inquiries and questions that are included.The general and corporate information include information relating tothe size of the corporation as well as the percentage of managementpeople and the percentage of sales in various regions of the world.Market segmentation is generally directed to the types and size ofprojects as well as the growth of the vendor's revenue.

[0040] The client base questions are directed to the percentage of thefirm's recent revenue in particular domains to gauge in which segmentthis vendor is most significantly active as well as discussions on thenumber of clients which the technology vendor currently/in the past hasserviced. If the contracts are directed to IT field, questions relatingto software development proficiency would be included. These questionsnormally relate to the proficiency of the vendor and the development oftechnology. Operational procedures generally relate to the amount inwhich the vendor operates such as whether a quality assurance program isin place. Questions relating to work force augmentation would bedirected to the technology vendors who regularly place “technologyprofessionals” and not so much engage in bidding for actual servicecontracts. As can be appreciated, the number and types of questions ineach of the categories can be altered for a multitude of reasons. As canbe appreciated, not all of these questions in the above-noted categoriesare equal. Consequently, each of these questions is assigned a weightedscore. Each of the vendors responses are noted and are assigned aparticular score at step 30. These scores are normalized for each of thecategories at step 32. The present invention would weight each of thecategories at step 34 with the total weights of all of the categoriessumming to 100. It can be appreciated that based upon the type ofproject upon which a bid is offered, different categories would havemore importance than other categories, and, indeed, one or morecategories can be assigned a weight of 0 to account for the customerpreferences. These weighted responses are entered or calculated on thecomputer platform.

[0041] Calculation of the Intrinsic Rating

[0042] The intrinsic rating (IR) is determined at step 36 utilizingequation (1).

IR=ΣW_(i)*X_(i)   (1)

[0043] where W_(i)=Weight for category i

[0044] X_(i)=Normalized score for category i

[0045] The intrinsic rating is determined after normalizing eachcategory with the normalization factor being the highest score for thatparticular category. The final weights are multiplied with thenormalized scores to determine the final intrinsic rating for eachvendor. This rating would be scored from 0 to 1 with 1 being the highestattainable score. All of these steps are accomplished on the computerplatform.

[0046]FIG. 3 illustrates a procedure for allowing the customer to modifythe intrinsic rating (IR) of each vendor based upon vendor performance.Various questions are initially given to the customer for responsesthereto relating to the specific performance at step 38. The customer isalso given an opportunity to answer the same questions as included instep 38 or additional questions related to the specific vendorperformance at regular intervals at step 40. The answer to thesequestions are scored at step 42 and normalized at step 44. Based uponthe algorithm of the present invention for customer preferences, boththe IR score as well as the modified IR score are weighted in a mannerto reflect the relative importance of these scores. If it is judged thatthe IR score is more important than each customer's view of theparticular vendor, the IR score would be more heavily weighted. Whenthis value as described in FIG. 3 is added to the IR score, weightedaccording to preferences, the modified intrinsic score is calculated.The modified IR score would range between 0 and 1 with 1 being thehighest rating, and would be included on the computer platform.

[0047] Calculation of the Two-Way Rating

[0048] To properly compare each of the vendors and to determine therisk-adjusted bid, a two-way vendor rating (VR) must be calculated asdescribed hereinbelow and illustrated with respect to FIG. 4. Thistwo-way rating is a modified implementation of Bayes' theorem wherebythe intrinsic rating is the “a priori” probability and a two-way ratingis the “a posteriori” probability. The two-way rating adjustment usesproject specific characteristics and matches them to each vendor'sstated expertise. Vendor specific information required to compute thetwo-way rating is aggregated by the present invention during the vendorpre-certification stage or the calculations done in the previous section(intrinsic rating) of the invention. By taking into account relevantvendor knowledge, or lack thereof, the present invention's two-wayrating becomes a much finer assessment of project-specific successprobability compared to previous attempts which are based on the verygeneral assessment of vendor capabilities or various object assessmentsof “maturity levels”, seem weak in contrast. The two-way VR is expressedin equation (2).

Two-way VR for k=[Q(x,k)×P(k)]/Q(x)   (2)

[0049] where Q(x,k) is the percentage of projects of type x that vendork has performed in the past; P(k) is the intrinsic rating in a range offrom 0 to 1 of each vendor as described hereinabove, and Q(x) is thesummation over all vendors of Q(x,k)*P(k). This means that the vendordistribution has been normalized such that the set of candidate biddersmakes up the entire distribution. It is noted that the two-way VR forvendors 1, 2, 3 and 4 in Table I would be 0.43, 0.24, 0.33 and 0.01,respectively. These calculations are performed on the computer platform.

[0050] Referring to FIG. 4, the present invention takes advantage of theability to partition a large contract into multiple stages or phases asshown in step 50. Since some of the modules or phases are more importantthan other stages or phases, the vendor's two-way rating would reflectthis fact. Therefore, the client would weight each of the stages orphases of the RFP with respect to their importance at step 52. Thevendor weights are then calculated showing the expertise for each moduleor phase of the RFP at step 54. This step would result in thecalculation of Q(x,k). Once Q(x,k), P(k) and Q(x) are determined, thetwo-way vendor rating VR is determined at step 56. It is noted that P(k)can either be the intrinsic rating or the modified intrinsic rating asdescribed hereinabove. These calculations are performed on the computerplatform.

[0051] Calculation of the Risk-Adjusted Bid

[0052] Once two-way VR is determined, it is utilized to calculate anadjustment value to be added to the nominal bid to provide therisk-adjusted bid shown in the penultimate line in Table I for each ofthe four vendors. Equation (3) is utilized to make this computation.

(1−Two-way VR)log_(e)(μ)*σ_(A) ^(BID)*C_(A)   (3)

[0053] i.e. [1 Two-way Vendor Rating * log_(e)(Average Execution Timefor the project)*(Conditional Variance for Vendor A)*(Vendor Daily CostIndex)]

[0054] The adjustment is based on the following data:

[0055] N=Number of Vendors Bidding for the module or the project

[0056] CA=Vendor Daily Cost Index=Project Nominal Bid/Project ExecutionTime (Modified Average Daily Cost)

[0057] C^(BID)=Vendor Bid/Vendor Average Daily Cost

[0058] C_(A) ^(BID)=Vendor Bid/Vendor Average Daily Cost

[0059] μ=Average of execution times of all Vendors

[0060] μ=1/ΣC_(I) ^(BID) (Summed over all Vectors iεN)

[0061] (μis the average time of execution of all Vendor bids on theproject)

[0062] Conditional Variance for Vendor A of exceeding the averagetime=(σ_(A) ^(BID))²=1/NΣ{(C_(I) ^(BID)−C_(A) ^(BID))⁺²} (Summed overall Vendors iεN)

[0063] where we have the convention

[0064] (C_(I) ^(BID)−μ)+=C_(I) ^(BID) 31 μ if C_(I) ^(BID)−μ>0=0otherwise

[0065] Utilizing this formula along with the information included inTable I, the conditional variance for vendors 1, 2, 3 and 4 would be255.5; 0; 288.63 and 255.5, respectfully. When plugged into the formulafor the risk adjustment, the added risk adjustment for vendors 1, 2, 3and 4 would be 340,078; 0; 474,827 and 1,083,713. When added to thenominal bid, the total adjusted bid for vendors 1, 2, 3 and 4 would be689,578; 845,300; 726,227 and 1,193,713, respectfully. These figures areshown in the penultimate line of Table I. Therefore, a review of Table Iwould indicate that while vendor 4 proposed the lowest nominal bid, whenthis bid was adjusted, the total risk-adjusted bid was much greater thanthe amount for vendor 1 whose nominal bid was more than three timesgreater than vendor 4's nominal bid (note that the ratings, both theintrinsic and two-way ratings for vendor 1 are much higher). Thusallowing the customer to analyze that even though vendor 4 bid was thelow4st there was significant risk involved in selecting this vendor. Theclient would review the risk-adjusted bids utilizing the informationincluded in Table I to reach a decision and select a vendor. The clientwould use both the nominal and risk-adjusted bids since various vendorshave flexibility in different areas, and local knowledge may be criticalin determining the optimal combination. These calculations are performedon the computer platform.

[0066] The client may wish to go through a second round of bidding. Ifthis is the case, an updated RFP is completed and is sent out withslightly different parameters and requirements. This might occur sincethe client will have learned to refine their requirements after theinitial bidding round and will more accurately represent the client'sneeds during this second round of bidding. If this is not exercised, theclient would select the ultimate vendor.

[0067] The system of the present invention would include biddinginstructions, one of which is to respond to breaking out the proposalinto the same modules or phases and for vendors to respond with a dollarand time bid for each one. Additionally, since time of delivery of eachmodule/phase is important, each of the vendors would also supply theparticular time of delivery for each of the modules or phases as well asa total time to complete the entire project. The nominal dollar bid fromeach vendor would be adjusted to compensate for the risk associated withweaker vendors. This adjustment would be proportional to the riskinvolved in dealing with that particular vendor. Weak vendors willexperience high adjustments, while strong vendors will experience lowadjustments. Using this risk adjustment method, the present inventionwill adjust the nominal amount of each bid to establish therisk-adjusted cost of the contract when delivered by a particularvendor, allowing the customer a much better assessment of the nominalbid and the risk inherent in the selection of a particular vendor. Thisrisk adjustment would be included along with information relating toeach of the modules or phases of the bid in a CTO decision matrix asshown in Table I, and would be accomplished on the computer platform.

[0068] The CTO decision matrix is a basic summary report that enables aquick and substantive review of the bids received from the vendors onany RFP. In addition to the intrinsic and extrinsic two-way vendorsrating and total execution time for the project, the matrix shows a timeallocation for each phase of the project and the price charged by eachvendor for each phase. The third line of the matrix shows the totalexecution time for the contract. It is noted that the third to the lastline of Table I would include the nominal bid of each of the vendors andthe penultimate line would include the risk-adjusted bid based upon amethod which will be explained in detail. The risk-adjusted bids arecomputed on the computer platform using client-defined preferences withrespect to cost verses time, project parameters and the vendor-two-wayratings. In general, a weak vendor will have a much higher upwardadjustment than a strongly rated vendor. The two-way rating shown inline four of Table I address the suitability of using a specific vendoron a particular project and incorporates relevant experience and priorhistory on similar projects. This process would yield a uniform scalethrough which all vendors can be compared. Line 13 of Table I includesthe estimated cost of pricing delivery risk insurance on this project bythe vendor. The manner in which this delivery risk insurance iscalculated will be described below.

[0069] As described hereinabove, one aspect of the present invention wasto develop a system and methodology that customers could use for ratingand assessing the risk inherent in determining a particular vendor toutilize to perform a particular technological contract. The presentinvention developed the use of intrinsic as well as two-way extrinsicratings used to compare the bids promulgated by various vendors. Thepresent invention also developed a methodology of structuring aninsurance contract allowing customers to be able to hedge their risk ofusing various technology vendors. The result of the structure and methodis to reduce the shareholder risk to technology and vendor delivery forlarge corporations and to allow the outsourcing of technologicalprojects to on-shore and off-shore vendors. This would considerablyreduce the risk of outsourcing technology contracts.

[0070] The present invention addresses the offering of operational riskinsurance/surety for outsourcing services, both within the United Statesand overseas; notably to India, China, Philippines, Israel or theRussian Republic. These countries possess equivalent intellectualexpertise to United States vendors, but at lower costs. Many companiesbased in the West would hesitate to outsource technology projectsbecause of the perceived risk of various vendors located ingeographically remote areas both overseas and within the U.S. of livingup to their obligations under the particular technology contract. Thisis partly due to lack of knowledge of the various technology vendors inthis area as well as lack of standardized objective criteria throughwhich these overseas technology companies can be analyzed, rated andassessed.

[0071] Large corporations often live and die by the promptness withwhich their technology is delivered. Core-business could suffersignificantly if technology is either not delivered or not delivered ontime. The mitigation of the economic consequences of such delays, andthe associated protection of the stock price for the large corporationsis of paramount importance. Therefore, to provide insurance against suchcontingencies, one must first establish an unambiguous method to assessthe delay and then to construct an insurance/guarantee contract underwhich the policy will compensate the customer against the vendor who hasdefaulted. Therefore, it is important to define “default” so that itsoccurrence would trigger payment by the insurance company or guarantorto the customer.

[0072] Consequently, the present invention would allow large companiesto “insure” vendor delivery for both domestic as well as overseasvendors. This would allow these companies to mitigate risk of doingbusiness with unknown vendors based both in the United States and inforeign countries. It would also enable the companies to test vendorswho would otherwise would not be part of the selection pool but mightexhibit skills which would be particularly applicable to a specifictechnology contract. The present invention would also create betterrelationships between the customer and proprietary vendors, therebygiving the customers more options and a higher comfort factor—using thisstructure they are for the first time protected against a vendor'snon-delivery.

[0073] To determine the insurance premium, a number of factors must beanalyzed to price the risk that a particular vendor would not timelydeliver the product in a timely manner. This would include the netexposure of an insurer following a claim lodged by the customer, theconditions upon which a claim on the policy can be made, the basis ofrisk estimation based upon the number of modules/phases in the contractand the probability of a default occurring at any point in time.

[0074] The present invention contemplates that a default would bedeclared and a claim made when a vendor fails to complete any stagewithin a pre-set limit, known as the trigger value for that stage.Trigger values are computed as multiples of the cumulative time a vendoris expected to complete the series of stages leading up to anysubsequent stage. Since all stages are contiguous and non-overlapping,the expected duration is simply equal to the vendor's cumulative timeprovided in the bid submitted to the client. These trigger values areincluded on the computer platform.

[0075] For example, a trigger value of 2.0 is defined as twice theamount of time the vendor estimated that a particular stage of thecontract would be completed. Therefore, if the vendor in questionspecifies that stage one will be completed within 20 days, a defaultwill be declared if stage one is still not completed after 40 days.Completion is defined formally by the fact that each stage is associatedwith a specific deliverables. If the client accepts the deliverable andsigns off on it, the corresponding stage is deemed to be complete.

[0076] The key to premium calculation lies in the derivation of therequired probability distributions allowing the default probabilities tobe computed at each phase or stage.

[0077] The trigger is the value of the delay probability where there issufficient certainty of a delay that a default can be declared under thepolicy. The default itself is not a probability. Either there is adefault or there is not a default. But the trigger is defined by thevalue of a probability and therefore is a number between 0 and 1.Technically, the vendor could always wait until the day of deliverywhere the delay probability may become 1 to declare default under thepolicy.

[0078] Referring to FIG. 5, we will now describe the methodology ofdetermining a premium price to be charged for delivery by a particularvendor. The vendor could be located both onshore and offshore. Similarto FIG. 4, the technology contract is partitioned into a number ofmodules or phases at step 58. Therefore, once the contract is initiated,the contractual work can be monitored in terms of the number ofphases/modules that have been completed. At each prescribed timeinterval, the vendor's phase completed can be compared to expectedcompletion dates to determine the statistical estimate of theprobability of not meeting the delivery date. This can be accomplishedusing the computer platform. Late delivery of the phases/modules willresult in delays of the overall project unless the future phases can becompleted in less than their scheduled time. The original schedule hasbeen set up and monitored against vendor's actual deliver ofphases/modules. This schedule is entered on the computer platform,directly by using the internet with the vendor's indirect contact withthe computer platform. Alternatively, the bids can be scanned into thecomputer platform or entered by any of the known methods. As the projectprogresses, the delay probability would either increase towards 1 if itwould appear that the contract is being completed on a timely basis orwould decrease towards 0 if the contract has been delayed. Once thecontract has been partitioned, a price/time bid is obtained from eachvendor on each module/phase at step 60. Utilizing the methodologydescribed hereinabove, the two-way vendor ratings are determined usingthe computer platform and then used for each of the vendors at step 62.At this point, a shadow bid is obtained from a secondary vendor orproject guarantor to calculate the net exposure to the insurer/guarantorat step 64. The shadow bid from a secondary vendor or project guarantoris the price a well established technology company would charge to stepinto the defaulting vendor and taking over the task of completing theproject. Once this is accomplished, default triggers are negotiated atstep 66. This negotiation would be done between the customer and theinsurance/guarantor company. At this point, a discount rate R is alsodetermined. For sake of argument, we can assume a risk-free rate of 7%.

[0079] Once this is accomplished, various contingency exposures must bedetermined at step 68. These contingency exposures could include variousrisk factors such as whether the company is United States based or basedin a foreign country having an unstable political climate or economy.Various other demographic or economic factors could also be utilized todetermine the contingent exposures.

[0080] Step 70 computes using the computer platform the probability aparticular vendor will actually default at a particular module or phase.For each stage the default probability of a vendor is computed bycomputing the probability distribution of the cumulative completiontimes that the vendor has bid. From this distribution we estimate theprobability to the right of the default trigger (that has beenpreviously established) and that number is the default probability atthat stage. We assume that the individual stage completion timedistributions are normal with the mean given by the vendor bid and thestandard deviation given by the conditional standard deviation attachedto the vendor in a particular vendor set. We use both conditional andunconditional probabilities of default in different scenarios forcalculating the insurance/guarantor premium. The default probabilityP_(i) is hence determined at step 70. The premium at step 78 iscalculated by multiplying the sum of exposures by the defaultprobability as shown by equation (4). The calculation is made for eachmodule/phase.

PremiumAmount=(1−VR)*ΣP _(i) *E _(i)/(1+R)^(t(i))   (4)

[0081] where

[0082] VR=vendor two-way rating

[0083] P_(i)=the probability that the vendor will default aftercompleting module “i”;

[0084] E_(i)=the net exposure of the insurer after completing module“i”;

[0085] R=suitable discount rate; and

[0086] t(i)=module “i” completion time when the trigger is breached atthat time. TABLE II Phase 1 $252,947 Phase 2 $121,245 Phase 3 $54,923Phase 4 $21,362 Phase 5 $18,665 Phase 6 $5,782 Phase 7 $1,722 TOTAL$476,646

[0087] The summation portion of this equation is the sum of exposuresfor each of the phases of the project as shown in Table I. Table IIincludes the exposure for each of the seven phases including the sum ofexposures, in this case being $476,646. Table II details the sum ofexposures for vendor 1 in Table I. Since the two-way VR for vendor 1 is0.434, when 1-0.434 is multiplied by the sum of exposures $476,646, aninsurance premium of $269,787 is calculated. The insurance premium forvendors 3 and 4 were calculated in a similar manner. It is noted thatsince vendor 2 was outlier, no insurance premium could be calculated.The dollar value of each of the exposures decreases from phase 1 throughphase 7. This results from the fact that the exposure decreases fromphase 1 through phase 7 since it is assumed that once one of the laterphases is reached (such as phase 5), the first four phases of thecontract were completed in a timely manner, resulting in a reduction ofrisk for the insurer.

[0088] The overview of the present invention relating to the arrangementbetween various parties of the structure of the contract is shown inFIG. 6. The administrator 74 who provides on-going vendor ratings andmonitoring of the contract using the computer platform is the backboneof the present invention. The administrator would either alone, or withthe assistance of the customer 76 partition a bid into a plurality ofphases/modules. The administrator 74 would also obtain responses fromthe various vendors 77 regarding their past performances in general orspecific to the particular technology contract to calculate theintrinsic rating (IR) as well as the two-way extrinsic rating (VR) onthe computer platform. The administrator would be on-going rating agencywhich monitors vendor ratings and the technology service contracts. Itis noted that the intrinsic rating can be modified with the help of thecustomer 76. Based upon these factors, as well as the additional stepsshown in FIG. 5, an insurance premium or a guarantor's fee is determinedfor each of the vendors for a particular technology contract. Theguarantor (or the secondary vendor) 78 would also provide the shadow bidwhich we use to determine the net exposure to the insurance company 80.The insurance company determines the premium for the risk ofunderwriting the technology risk. This can be done directly or throughan insurance broker. It is noted that the administrator 74 can assistwith the determination of the premium using the computer platform.

[0089] Although the determination of the premium is not altered by thenationality of the vendor, different risks might be assumed in this typeof situation. This scenario is illustrated with respect to FIG. 7. Inthis instance, customer 80 wishes to have software developed by a vendor82 situated in a foreign country. The customer 84 would then contact aUnited States insurance company 86 who in turn would issue anoperational risk policy protecting customer 88 according to the terms ofthe project. The U.S. insurer 86 would contact an overseas insurancecompany 84 to re-insure a portion of the risk and would thereforereceive a portion of the revenue. The overseas insurer would do duediligence review on the overseas software vendor 82 and may hire a thirdparty 92 to provide a vendor risk rating to assess its own risk. Theoverseas insurer 84 provides the “first loss” piece while the customeronly deals with the U.S. insurer 86. If the project is declared indefault according to the terms of the policy, a U.S. based secondaryvendor/guarantor 90 would take over responsibility for the project andsee to its completion. All of the additional costs would be paid by theU.S. insurer 86. The reason for this mechanism is to create an initialcomfort level in the mind of the U.S. based customer unfamiliar withoutsourcing as a viable alternative in in-house development.

[0090] The overseas insurance company 84 would underwrite the local riskand establish formal parameters under which they would take on anegotiated portion of the operational risk related to completion of theproject. The overseas rating agency 92 would conduct a due diligencereview of the perspective software vendor 82, after which a rating wouldbe issued. Armed with this rating, the overseas insurance company 84would underwrite the project and provide the U.S. insurance company 86with a “first loss” protection layer in the form of a surety bond. Thelatter would then “wrap” the foreign based reinsurer with a secondaryperformance bond by and between itself and the U.S. customer. Before theU.S. insurer could be called upon to pay on a default claim, the primarypolicy would have to be fully drawn. The U.S. customers would be relyingsolely on the secondary policy.

[0091] In order to execute such a program, and to price the riskassuming a risk-adverse counter party, it is important to define the netexposure of the U.S. based insurer following a claim, the conditionsupon which a claim on the policy can be made, the basis for riskestimation and, the probabilities of default occurring at any point intime.

[0092] Risk neutral valuation must be accomplished under objectiveconditions if fair pricing is to ensure. This is because the cost of thepolicy to United States based customers must still result in net costsavings over comparable onshore developing costs despite risk-aversionby the insurer. Final pricing will, as always, will be left up tobilateral negotiation between the U.S. based insurer and the customer.

[0093] The policy is intended to deliver the required comfort level toU.S. based clients. This can be accomplished by contracting substantiala U.S. based software firm as a secondary vendor or a guarantor of theproject. In order for this method to work, the secondary vendor or theguarantor of the project (who provides the shadow bid) must be kept “inthe loop” in some nominal fashion during the project's final negotiationstage in order to have them price their services for the project if thewinning vendor were to default on contract delivery. The secondaryvendor or the guarantor would be paid a fee for costing out the projectand for providing project management. Alternatively, the presentinvention would contract with these firms on a global basis andnegotiate certain preferential terms owing to this special relationship.The net exposure to the United States based issuer is the differencebetween the shadow bid and the vendor's bid.

[0094] In the event of a default, the exposure of the insurance companyis defined as the difference between the secondary vendor's (or theguarantor's) firm bid and the primary vendor's bid of the portion of theproject that remains outstanding after default. This is because the U.S.based client is then assured of seeing this project completed for theamount originally budgeted, albeit with some potential time delay. Whenappropriate, the definition can be easily extended to include anadjustment for this delay. An alternative structure would have theexposure calculated as the difference between the primary vendor's bidand that of another “primary” vendor. However, it is highly unlikelythat a U.S. based customer having just been defaulted by an offshoresoftware vendor would seriously consider entrusting the projectcompletion to another offshore vendor.

[0095] Therefore, the value of the relevant set of contingent exposurescan be quantified exactly at project inception. In order to pricepolicies however, we would still need to determine the associatedprobabilities with which such contingent exposures would becomeliabilities of the insurer in a given project. These contingencyexposures are determined utilizing the function point analysis, thedefault definition and the default probability estimates as previouslydescribed.

[0096] Although the invention has been described in terms of thepreferred embodiments disclosed herein, those skilled in the art willappreciate many modifications which may be made without departing fromthe true spirit and scope of the invention. For example, although thepresent invention discusses a situation for providing a technologycontract, the present invention also is applicable to any contractcapable of being partitioned. Additionally, once all of the relevantcalculations are made with respect to the intrinsic and extrinsictwo-way ratings as well as other distribution and normalization data,the adjusted bid as well as the premium are calculated using speciallydesigned software for this purpose. All such modifications are intendedto be included within the scope of the claims appended hereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for determining an insurance premiumpaid to an insurer from a customer for a technology contract, comprisingthe steps of: obtaining a price/time bid from a plurality of vendors forthe performance of the contract; calculating an intrinsic rating P(k)for each of the vendors based upon the strength and performance of eachof the vendors; calculating a component Q(x,k) for each vendor whichquantifies the ability/suitability of a vendor to deliver on a“specific” component of said technology contract or a Request ForProposal (RFP) based on the vendor's past performance; calculating acomponent Q(x) which is the summation of the Q(x,k) and P(k);determining an extrinsic two-way rating Vendor Rating (VR) of each ofthe plurality of vendors using the equation: Two-wayVR=[Q(x,k)×P(k)]/Q(x) determining a default probability value P_(i) foreach of the vendors; determining a first net exposure E_(i) for saidinsurer; determining a discount rate R; and calculating a premium paidto said insurer for each of the vendors.
 2. The method in accordancewith claim 1, further including the steps of: partitioning thetechnology contract into independent modules/phases; obtaining saidprice/time bid from each of the vendors for said independentmodules/phases of the contract; and determining a second net exposurebased upon the completion of each of said independent modules/phases. 3.The method in accordance with claim 2, further including the step ofnegotiating a default trigger value for the contract.
 4. The method inaccordance with claim 3, further including the step of calculating thesaid insurance premium paid to the insurer utilizing the equation:Premium Amount=(1−Two-way VR)*ΣP _(i) *E _(i)/(1+R)^(t(i))
 5. The methodin accordance with claim 1, further including the step of altering eachof said intrinsic ratings based upon customer preference resulting in amodified intrinsic rating.
 6. A system for determining an insurancepremium paid to an insurer from a customer for a technology contract,utilizing a computer platform comprising: means for obtaining price/timebids from a plurality of vendors for the performance of the contract;means for calculating an intrinsic rating P(k) for each of the vendorsbased upon the strength and performance of each of the vendors on acomputer platform; means for calculating a component Q(x,k) for eachvendor which quantifies the ability/suitability of a vendor to deliveron a “specific” component of said technology contract or a Request ForProposal (RFP) based on the vendor's past performance on said computerplatform; means for calculating a component Q(x) which is the summationof the Q(x,k) and P(k) on said computer platform; means for determiningon said computer platform an extrinsic two-way rating Vendor Rating (VR)of each of the plurality of vendors using the equation: Two-wayVR=[Q(x,k)×P(k)]/Q(x) means for determining on said computer platform adefault probability P_(i) for each of the vendors; means for determiningon said computer platform the net exposure E_(i) for an insurer; andmeans for calculating on said computer platform a premium paid to theinsurer for each of the vendors.
 7. The system in accordance with claim6, further including a means for partitioning the technology contractinto independent modules/phases and receiving price/time bids from eachof the vendors for each of said modules/phases and further including ameans for determining the net exposure based upon the completion of eachof said modules/phases.
 8. The system in accordance with claim 6,wherein said means for determining said two-way rating for each vendoruses data relating to the intrinsic rating of each of the vendors basedupon the general performance of the vendors as well as the specific pastperformance related to the vendors exposure in the particulartechnology.
 9. The system in accordance with claim 8, wherein said meansfor determining two-way rating for each vendor includes a normalizeddistribution for the past performance for the particular technology ofthe contract for all of the vendors, said rating for each vendor beingan extrinsic two-way rating.
 10. A system for providing insuranceprotecting a customer against the default of a vendor performing on atechnology contract utilizing a computer platform, comprising: anadministrator partitioning the contract into a plurality of independentphases/modules, said administrator receiving price/time bids from aplurality of vendors for each of said independent phases/modules, saidadministrator additionally receiving information from the plurality ofvendors regarding their general past performances as well as specificpast performances relating to the specific type of technology of thecontract, said administrator calculating using said computer platform anintrinsic rating (IR) based upon the general performance of each of thevendors as well as a two-way rating (VR) based upon the specific type oftechnology of the contract; an insurance company; a guarantor providinga shadow bid to said administrator used to determine the net exposure tosaid insurance company; wherein a premium is determined for each of thevendors using said computer platform based upon said intrinsic ratingand said two-way rating to be paid by the customer to said insurancecompany protecting the customer from default of the performance of thecontract by a selected vendor.
 11. The system in accordance with claim10, wherein said administrator determines said premium.
 12. The systemin accordance with claim 10, wherein said insurance company determinessaid premium.
 13. The system in accordance with claim 10, furtherincluding: means for calculating an intrinsic rating P(k) for each ofthe vendors based upon the strength and performance of each of thevendors; means for calculating on said computer platform a componentQ(x,k) for each vendor which quantifies the ability/suitability of avendor to deliver on a “specific” component of said technology contractor a Request For Proposal (RFP) based on the vendor's past performance;means for calculating on said computer platform a component Q(x) whichis the summation of the Q(x,k) and P(k); and means for determining anextrinsic two-way rating Vendor Rating (VR) of each of the plurality ofvendors using the equation: Two-way VR=[Q(x,k)×P(k)]/Q(x)
 14. A systemfor providing insurance protecting a domestic customer against thedefault of a foreign vendor performing on a technology contractutilizing a computer platform, comprising: an administrator partitioningthe contract into a plurality of independent phases/modules, saidadministrator receiving price/time bids from a plurality of foreignvendors, for each of said independent phases/modules, said administratorreceiving information from the plurality of foreign vendors regardingtheir general past performance as well as specific past performancesrelating to the specific type of technology of the contract, saidadministrator calculating utilizing said computer platform an intrinsic(IR) rating based upon the general performance of each of the vendors aswell as a two-way rating (VR) based upon the specific type of technologyof the contract; a domestic insurance company; an overseas insurancecompany; wherein a premium is determined for each of the foreign vendorsusing said computer platform based upon said intrinsic rating and saidtwo-way rating to be paid by the customer to said domestic insurancecompany protecting the customer from default of the performance of thecontract by a selected foreign vendor, and further wherein a portion ofrisk of non-performance of the contract will e borne by said overseasinsurance company.
 15. The system in accordance with claim 14, furtherincluding an overseas rating agency for assessing the capability of theselected foreign vendor for performing the contract in a timely manner.16. The system in accordance with claim 15, wherein said administratordetermines said premium.
 17. The system in accordance with claim 15,wherein said domestic insurance company and said overseas insurancecompany determine said premium.
 18. The system in accordance with claim14, further including: means for calculating an intrinsic rating P(k)for each of the vendors based upon the strength and performance of eachof the vendors; means for calculating on said computer platform acomponent Q(x,k) for each vendor which quantifies theability/suitability of a vendor to deliver on a “specific” component ofsaid technology contract or a Request For Proposal (RFP) based on thevendor's past performance; means for calculating on said computerplatform a component Q(x) which is the summation of the Q(x,k) and P(k);and means for determining an extrinsic two-way rating Vendor Rating (VR)of each of the plurality of vendors using the equation: Two-wayVR=[Q(x,k)×P(k)]/Q(x)